Newcomer Belén Rueda makes splash in 'The Orphanage'

This undated photo provided by Picturehouse shows Belen Rueda during a scene from "The Orphanage." (AP Photo/Picturehouse)
Ran on: 12-26-2007
Bel�n Rueda plays a mother whose son disappears in &quo;The Orphanage,&quo; submitted as a contender for the foreign language Oscar race. less

This undated photo provided by Picturehouse shows Belen Rueda during a scene from "The Orphanage." (AP Photo/Picturehouse)
Ran on: 12-26-2007
Bel�n Rueda plays a mother whose son disappears in &quo;The ... more

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This undated photo provided by Picturehouse shows Belen Rueda during a scene from "The Orphanage." (AP Photo/Picturehouse)
Ran on: 12-26-2007
Bel�n Rueda plays a mother whose son disappears in &quo;The Orphanage,&quo; submitted as a contender for the foreign language Oscar race. less

This undated photo provided by Picturehouse shows Belen Rueda during a scene from "The Orphanage." (AP Photo/Picturehouse)
Ran on: 12-26-2007
Bel�n Rueda plays a mother whose son disappears in &quo;The ... more

Photo: Ho

Newcomer Belén Rueda makes splash in 'The Orphanage'

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Among Belén Rueda's jobs before her acting career took off was a short stint hosting "La Ruleta de la Fortuna," the Spanish edition of "Wheel of Fortune." That is somehow appropriate, because after years as a host and sitcom star on TV, the wheel of movie stardom fortune has finally turned her way. After a memorable screen debut three years ago as Javier Bardem's disabled attorney in "The Sea Inside," the 42-year-old Madrid native now takes the lead in the gothic horror thriller "The Orphanage."

In director Juan Antonio Bayona's first feature, Rueda plays Laura, a woman who returns to the long-abandoned seaside orphanage where she spent her early years with the idea of taking care of a new generation of needy children. But during a party to celebrate her new venture, Laura's own young son, Simón (Roger Princep), disappears. Her frantic efforts to find the missing child lead to further mysteries, some stretching back to her own childhood. A critical success since its premiere at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, "The Orphanage" is Spain's entry into the 2008 foreign-language Oscar race.

Though Princep is adorable and Fernando Cayo as Laura's doctor husband, Carlos, and Geraldine Chaplin as an eerie psychic contribute strong support, the success of the film rests on Rueda. One false note in her performance and the story sinks into incredibility, but despite her slim film and dramatic resume, Bayona wanted Rueda for the part.

"She was my first choice from the beginning," he insists. "What I really like about Belén Rueda is that she's really known in Spain, so we've got like a star. At the same time, she's second tier on the big screen, so she's kind of refreshing.

"I really like the way she looks. She's such a mix of fragility and strength. From our first meeting, I knew she was going to be perfect."

For Rueda, character was the key. "When I read the script the first time, I loved it very much. I understood Laura. I'm a mother. I understood what happened to her," says Rueda at the Toronto International Film Festival, where "The Orphanage" had its first North American screening in September.

"You go with her all the way," she says. "I think the audience feels everything that she feels, because she starts like you and me and then she starts to change, but she has a very good reason and you can understand her."

To prepare for the role, Rueda spoke to a family whose daughter had been missing for nine years. Despite their pain, they were generous in sharing their memories of the near decadelong search for their little girl.

"You can see that their lives changed the moment she disappeared," Rueda says. "You keep changing as time passes, because at first you're thinking, 'It's not possible. It's not true.' You don't believe the reality. After, you say, 'Well, I have to find him,' but as the days go by, the hope is falling. You think it's impossible, but you keep looking."

"The Orphanage" was filmed in the seaside town of Llanes in the north of Spain, its principal locations being a large 19th century manor house, a desolate CGI-created lighthouse (though the region is filled with lighthouses, all are in working condition, hence the special effect), and most important, the beach where an ominous gray sea pours in, threatening to obliterate anything in its path. That shore on the Bay of Biscay, normally a tourist destination, is given a more ominous cast. "The north of Spain is very special. The sea is very hard," she says. "For example, we were shooting next to the sea one day, and within an hour, the tide came in for half a mile. We were shooting in the road with the child and in one moment, the sea was in the road and Roger was, 'Oh, please, please, we're going to drown here.'

"You can even see in the film how unforgiving it is. You can walk inside that rock," she adds, referring to a seaside cave that serves as a playground for Simón. "But if the tide comes in, you won't come out again."

As the mother of two daughters, ages 8 and 13, Rueda sympathized with Laura. "You love your children more than anything in life. When they are in trouble, you experience it as if it's happening to you, not to them."

For Bayona, though, Rueda's maternal instinct might have been even more valuable on the set, where she could lend a hand with 8-year-old Roger. "I was like his mom," she laughs. At first he was excited to be making a movie, because it seemed so much like playing, but the novelty quickly wore off in the face of days that could last as long as eight hours.

"He would get tired and he wouldn't work," Rueda says. "We couldn't play with him all the time. And he's very spontaneous. He's good in the moment, but when he's tired, it's impossible."

Rueda, taking the role of the surrogate on set, engaged Roger, explaining scenes to him, keeping him involved. "He's very special," she says, and the proof of that perception is in the child's achingly vulnerable performance.

With awards season barely under way, Rueda has already snagged her first nomination, a best actress nod from the Barcelona Film Awards. She has also started stretching herself in new directions, making her stage debut this past January as the photographer Anna in Patrick Marber's "Closer" at Madrid's Teatro Lara.

The developments are welcome for an actor who knows that she might never have escaped television if filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar had not taken a chance on her for "The Sea Inside." "My career is the opposite of normal actors," she laughs.

Rueda is not the only person who is happy she was able to make the jump to the movies. "My best decision was to cast her," says Bayona. "She's a refreshing face in Spanish cinema. She brings to the movie a lot of emotion and intelligence. It was beautiful to watch her working. She was beyond my expectations."